At the state of the art molds for joint spacer devices are known, which are usually made in elastically deformable material, such as, for example, silicone or other elastomeric suitable material, and intended to be filled with bone cement supplemented with antibiotic or other therapeutic substance, when the latter is in the fluid and malleable mass phase, for the purpose of obtaining a finished spacer device.
The bone cement supplemented with antibiotic or other therapeutic substance, after having hardened in such a mold, is subsequently removed therefrom and the joint spacer thus obtained, once finished off, is implanted in the joint space of a patient to treat a disease in progress in the tissues surrounding such joint space.
The traditional molds suffer from several drawbacks.
In the first place, being these made in elastically yielding-deformable material, such as silicone, they do not allow obtaining a spacer device with a definite shape in optimal manner, for which reason, once extracted from the mold, a spacer device must be machined superficially and finished, in order to obtain the exact required shape.
These molds, furthermore, although being in most cases expected to be disposed of/thrown away after only one single use, at times are reused after an appropriate washing process, for the purpose of reducing the costs for obtaining spacer devices having the same shape.
It can cap happen, however, that such a washing does not remove completely from the mold the traces of the antibiotic or additive therapeutic substance with bone cement used for a previous spacer device, with the result that allergic reactions may occur in spacer devices made with an antibiotic to which a patient is not allergic, which was, however, made in a mold used previously with bone cement supplemented with an antibiotic to which the patient is allergic.